Muskegon volunteers, students take part in 23rd Annual Grand Trunk Restoration Day

MUSKEGON, MI – The Grand Trunk Launch Ramp area at Lakeshore Drive and McCracken Street in Muskegon has undergone remarkable change in the last 23 years.

What started as a polluted wasteland of washing machines, tires and discarded car parts has been transformed into safe, clean park for people and wildlife alike, complete with walkways, a peace garden and a picnic shelter.

The transformation is thanks to the efforts of the Grand Trunk Restoration Partnership. On Friday afternoon, May 17, students and volunteers continued those efforts at the 23rd Annual Grand Trunk Restoration Day.

“What started out as a couple union folks picking up garbage has turned into over 100 people coming down a helping out,” said Mark Evans, lead volunteer and treasurer of the Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership.

The effort to clean the area began 23 years ago when Evans and his friend Craig Harpster were employees of the former Sappi Paper Mill. One day the duo decided to go fishing in the Grand Trunk area and quickly realized the poor state it was in.

“It was a junk yard,” Evans said. “We thought that was wrong, so we got a dozen of us from the union at the mill and we came over and picked up over 2,100 pounds of garbage the first year.”

Soon after, the small group partnered with the Lakeside Neighborhood Association, the city of Muskegon, Muskegon Public Schools and several local businesses to form a long-term commitment to restore the area.

With the aid of the $10 million Muskegon Lake Fish and Wildlife Habitat grant, the group has restored 5.9 acres of Muskegon Lake emergent wetland, 7.3 acres of open water wetland and 1,742 feet of shoreline,

On Friday afternoon, volunteers and students from several different schools in the area were at the site participating in their yearly cleanup.

Ronace Zielinski-Hogan, a teacher at Muskegon Middle School, was one of the educators who was first contacted when the volunteer group led by Evans was first beginning the project. She said the project is beneficial in many ways.

“The concept was to get the kids involved in the community and to teach them to be earth friendly,” Zielinski-Hogan said. “We wanted to stress the importance of taking care of the earth, especially now with the water situation and global warming.”

Both Evans and Zielinski-Hogan feel having the children participate in the restoration process is really what makes the entire Grand Trunk operation special.

“The kids are really learning the stewardship of the site,” Evans said. “These kids in the neighborhood maybe used to throw the garbage, now they’re the ones cleaning it up. Every year you see some kids that the importance of this really clicks with.”

Miranda Terry is one of those children. Terry, who is now in seventh grade at Muskegon Middle School, first began working at the site when she was in first grade at Nims Elementary School in Muskegon.

For Terry, returning to the site was a cool experience.

“It was really dirty and had a lot of garbage then,” Terry said. “Now there’s a lot of plant life and it’s really pretty. It makes me feel good that I had something to do with changing it.”

Evans said that there are so many kids that want to help that it’s getting harder to find them all jobs.

He added that the Grand Trunk Restoration Partnership has ambitions of improving the area in several ways, including removing the fence on the west side of the area for expanded public use. Other ideas include the addition of a fish cleaning station and a canoe/kayak rental station.

“The kids are so excited and so proud.” Zielinski-Hogan said. “They bring their parents back here and show them what they did. Now there’s fish, before it was just garbage. They see what they can do to help nature. It’s like a first-hand, long-lasting science project.”